EU's development aid commissioner heads to Cuba to hear out new leadership

The EU's top development aid official starts a four-day trip to Cuba in a bid to heal strained relations with Havana.

Louis Michel's mission, which was planned before the official hand-over of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul, will be the first high-level visit of an EU official to the Caribbean island since 2005 and the first since Raul became president.

Officials at EU headquarters say they are keen to hear out senior Cuban officials on whether changes, including economic and political reforms, are in the works now that Fidel has retired.

Michel's spokesman, John Clancy, said the European Commission wanted to see "the resumption of an open and constructive political dialogue" with Cuban leaders, a move Havana remains hesitant to endorse after the EU slapped political sanctions against the island in 2003.

The EU has since suspended those measures, but ties have remained icy.

Clancy said Raul's appointment as president "constitutes a new situation and Commissioner Michel has expressed his willingness to engage in a constructive political dialogue with President Raul Castro."

He added that Michel was "particularly interested to learn more, to listen, to hear about" Raul's intentions over possible political administrative and economic reforms that might happen.

Clancy said the EU was eager to resume talks on a wide range of issues related to climate change, the environment and on closer cooperation with Cuba on humanitarian aid issues.

Michel was scheduled to meet senior Cuban lawmakers and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

"The dialogue should cover all topics of mutual interest, including the political, human rights, economic, scientific fields," Clancy said.

The EU's 27 governments reached out last year to Raul to restart regular bilateral talks on various issues, including human rights.

In the wake of Europe's olive branch, Cuba invited Michel to visit the island after EU nations decided to suspend sanctions that were put in place in 2003 to protest the detention of 75 dissidents accused of working the U.S. to undermine Fidel Castro's government.

Cuban authorities then released 16 for medical reasons, and the EU suspended the measures in January 2005, restoring diplomatic relations and scrapping its ban on talks with Cuban officials.